Means for repairing tire-casings.



E. R. DULI..

MEANS Fon REP/umm; URE crAslIIs, APPLICATION FILED JULY 23. 1917.

Patented Sept. 17, i918.

EGBERT R. BULL, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.l

MEANS FOB. REPAIRING TIRE-CASINGS.

*lulm i Application filed July 23; 1917. Serial No. 182,127.'

To uit 'whom t may concern.'

:Be it known that L Eonnr It. Dura., a citizen of the' United States7residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinventcdcertain new and useful Improvements in Means for RepairingTire-Casings, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in pneumatic tire appliances andmethods of repairing tire casings. More particularly the inventionrelates to a protector and method of reinforcinga weakened area in atire casing, such as frequently is the result of cuts, disintegration ofmaterial, blow outs and other causes.

@ne of the objects .of my invention is to provide aprotector forattachment'to the interior of a casing so that the weakened area in thecasing proper will be relieved to a large extent of'outward pressureexerted the inflated tube.

Another object of my invention is to provide a protector for underlyinga weakened area in the casi/ng which has been reinforced by any suitablemethod, and so position the protector that the outward pressure exertedby the inflated tube will be transmitted largely to the walls of thecasing rather than 3o to the weakened area in the tread portion.

Still other and further objects will be- Q,come readily apparent tothose skilled in the art from consideration of the followingA desription and drawings, whereiny Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinalsectional view through a. pneumatic tire showing my improved protector.in place.

Fig. is a transverese sectional view on the line z2-@f2 of Fig. 1. Y

It is common practice to repair a weakled portion in the tread of a tirecasing by Y rulcanizing'a new piece of rubber tnereover or by attachinga patch to the, underside means.

In each instance the weakened area, even though it has been reinforcedand strength cned7 cannot possibly have the same strength or resistancethat the integral unbroken thread portion originally possessed. As a'result the extremely high pressure exerted .outwardly by the inflatedtube frequently causes a disintegration or breaking out of therepaired.section 'with attendant annoyance and expense.

My improved method of makinga repair Cfi thereof by some mechanical".portion of the casing is to a weakened area is to first repair theinjured casing, either by vulcanizing orv inserting a section of rubberyand riveting it in place, and then by positioningwithin the casingopposite the weakened area, a shoe orl sheet of material havingcomparatively high tensile strength and riveting or fastening thetransversely opposite edge portions of the sheet to the Walls of thecasing insuch a lmanner as to insure the outward pressure exerted `bythe inflated tube being carried almost entirely by the reinforcement andthe sides of the casing instead of being transmitted directly throughthe shoe to the weakened area of the casing.v As a result the 'weakenedportion of the tread is relievedI .largely sure exerted by the pneumatictube and is much less apt to disintegrate in service and again -.blowout. p

Referring now to the specific embodiment of my invention which I haveillustrated in the drawings I have shown a section of a pneumatic tirewhich has been repaired and reinforced by my method. The tire casingindicated by the numeral 10 mounted upon the metal rim 11 is presumed tohave had a section or area of its tread weakened as by' blow out or cutat the place indicated inv general by the numeral 12. The first step inthe repair is to cut away the section of casing immediatelysurrounding'- the injured portion and insert therein a closely fittingplugr or patch of rubber and fabric 13, fitting neatly within the cutaway portion so' as to entirely ll the opening. A sheet of fabric 14 issecured-to the under surface of t-he plug 13j-as by rivets 15, the edgeportions of the fabric projecting beyond the opening in which the lug isfitted and being secured to the marginal portion of the casingsurrounding 'the opening by means of other rivets 16. In this manner theweakened reinforced to a certain extent and sand and water is preventedfrom working through to the interior of the casing. Vulcanization orother methods may be employed to perform this firststep in the repair,the chief object offwhichis to apply a new traction surface at. theinjured point of the tread.

Having repaired the broken casing tread by the able method, I thenopposite the injured of material having insert within the casing area,a'shoe or patch 17 a comparatively high otherwise of the high pres- 'iportion of theabove or any `other suitif' y lthe transverse distance onVopposite the weakened area.

tensile strength and of a generally rectangular outline, so as to extendcircumferentially well beyond the weakened area and transversely downthe sidewalls 1S of the casing toward the casing beads 19. The materialof which the sheet is'made may be rubber impregnated canvas, such as isused in the construction of the casing itself, or leather, fiber, oryother material, having a sufficiently high tensile strength to resistthe tension eX- erted by the high pressure within the pneumatic tube 22,without stretching to such an extent as to transmit this pressure to thetread of the casing proper.

In positioning the sheet of material within the casing, I attach thetransversely opposite edge portions to the walls of the casing by meansof rivets 20, or other suitable fasteners which will attach the sheet tothe walls without likelihood of slipping or loosening. In attaching theedges of the repair shoe tothe casing walls it is desirable that of theshoe between the attaching points be less than the. distancetransversely of the casing on the interior surface thereof between theattaching pointsy so as to space the outer portion of the repair shoeinwardly Jfrom the inner surface of the casing tread It is, therefore,apparent that when the tube is inflated the pressure exerted outwardlythereby will -be carried largely by the repair shoe and transmitted downto the astenings at the side walls of the casing instead. of beingtransmitted directly through the shoe to the tread of the casing at thepoint of weakness.

The longitudinal ends 21 of the repair shoe may be thinned out orstretched so as`to permit their contact with the interior of the theouter surface the inner tube of the tire.

casing when the tire is inflated and thus prevent the tube when inflatedfrom creeping under the shoe and being injured. Fabric strips 23 arecemented over the inner ends of the rivets to prevent injuryto the tube.In the drawings I have made no attempt to proportion the partsaccurately,

of separation between the shoe and the casinfr bein@ exa oerated toillustrate more b b b clearly the manner of application.

Whereas I have illustrated and described but a single embodiment of myinvention and one method of producing the same, it will be evident tothose skilled in the art that many changes and modifications may be madetherein without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scopeof the appended claim.

Having described claim iszi The combination with a pneumatic tire casinghaving a rupture in its tread, of an insert for lsaid rupture to.reestablish the tread surface; a protector'for said ruptured part, tobe applied .within the casing, comprising a generallyv rectangular sheetoffma- `my invention, what I terial'having relativelyhigh tensilestrength,

overlying vsaid insert and Aattached to the casing on'each` side betweenthe open edge of the casing and said insert, the midportion of saidprotector spaced apart'from said in the distance sert, to protect saidinsert Jfrom contact with lIn testimony whereof II hereunto set my handin the presence of two subscribing witnesses. f y .j

EGBERT'R. DULL. In the presence of# V Fomin BAIN, .STANLEY W. Coon.,

